If you go by one figure, you could just leave that tap open in your bathroom and go to sleep. If you go by another, you might just want to seal the shower and phase out your bathing regime to alternate days.

One figure tells you that 93 per cent of urban areas in India have access to safe drinking water. But the other shows that water is typically available for only two to eight hours a day. The story doesn’t end here. Actually, it’s the beginning.

In India, it is not as simple as as an average of figures. A third of the country perennially lives under the threat of drought – not always by insufficient rainfall, but often by its uneven distribution. Then there are several regions that simultaneously witness droughts and floods. Water is one proverbial loaf of bread that everyone wants a piece of – industries, agriculture, homes, shops, offices, human beings, animals. And water may be getting scarcer.

This is why wastewater reuse market is growing in India. Industries earlier used to dispose of effluents with almost no treatment, but growing awareness about industrial pollution, a pro-active judiciary and increased groundwater mining have resulted in industries — and now municipalities — looking for technological options to reuse wastewater and even try out desalination of sea water.

The trend started in sectors like refineries, fertilisers, power, textile and tanneries, but is now catching up in local self-government bodies like municipalities and municipal corporations. The latest addition to such initiatives is Netherland firm Norit’s 100 million litres a day desalination project for Chennai and its ultrafiltration-technology-based drinking water plan for the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi in October.

Chief growth officer at Norit Menno Holterman calls Chennai the “water scarcity capital” of India saying that the country was a challenging place and needed multiple solutions. “Water quality varies even within cities which does not happen in the west.” According to Holterman, desalination of sea water seems to be a major alternative for India given that the country is surrounded by sea from three sides.

Yet, only 15 to 20 million litres a day of sea water is being harnessed in the country. According to National Institute of Hyd­rology much of the water available on earth is saline. Of the 2.5 per cent fresh water sources, most of them lie deep underground or frozen in Antarctica and Greenland. Only about one fourth of one per cent is accessible through rivers, lakes and shallow aquifers.

India has about 16 per cent of the world population but only four per cent of average annual runoff in the rivers. Estimates by the Central Water Commission indicate that the water resources useable through surface structures is only about 690 cubic km – that is about 36 per cent of the total. That’s why recycling could be an important source of water. Says managing director of Fivebro Water Services Nishit Doshi: “A strong option for India is recycling of sewage and effluent. If the government encourages industries to recycle water, by providing subsidies, they will stop consuming clean water.” Even sea water could be economically treated says Doshi and costs have fallen to a reasonable two paise per litre.

For cities with receding water tables and shrinking sources of fresh water, desalination and recycling could make a big difference. But that would mean the municipalities would have to come out with comprehensive plans, something which does not appear to be happening.